KENT GRAHAM SET TO GET BUSY AGAIN

Linda YoungCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Nobody had ever before figured out a way to slow down Kent Graham.

Not opposing defenses, which the Wheaton North quarterback has spent two seasons shredding. Not opposing forwards, who have watched the 6-foot-5-inch senior shoot his way to three straight all-Du Page Valley Conference citations. Certainly not opposing pitchers, who have watched Graham rip their fastballs at a nearly .400 clip for two years.

Wheaton North coaches have seen Graham on the go 12 months a year, often 12 hours or more a day, playing football, basketball or baseball, sometimes changing uniforms on the run from one sport to the other.

So neither Falcon football coach Jim Rexilius nor basketball coach Jim Hedrick seemed too upset when Graham suffered an ankle injury while playing a game of high ball on a trampoline in late May. That kept him sidelined throughout most of the summer.

''I think he kind of needed a break,'' said Hedrick. ''When he comes back fresh, maybe he`ll come back and have a great senior year.''

''This might be the best thing, something to slow him down for a while. He`s had so many things going on that he never had a chance to stop and relax,'' Rexilius said. ''Now he`s had a chance to sit back and reflect what`s going on in his life.''

Perhaps, but the ligament damage that Graham suffered in his right ankle kept him in a cast for three weeks and under the watchful eye of a physical therapist for three weeks after that. It kept him away from several all-star basketball camps to which he had been invited. It kept him from playing basketball in the Prairie State Games. It kept him out of a summer passing league. And it kept him away from several baseball tryouts which professional scouts had asked him to attend.

It will not, however, keep him from spending a final high school season wreaking havoc on Du Page Valley opponents. The ankle is as good as new.

''The doctor says it`s fine, it`s just that ligament damage takes six weeks to heal,'' said Graham, who started running in mid-July. ''I was able to throw in the mornings and to lift weights. I could still shoot, too.''

One day soon, Graham will take his pick from the hundreds of colleges that seek his athletic talents. One day soon, he will take his pick of sports from among football, baseball and basketball, all of which have recruiters memorizing Victor and Romelle Graham`s Wheaton telephone number.

''He`s too good for this league,'' one opposing Du Page Valley coach said. ''He`s a man among boys out there.''

Despite quarterbacking skills that have drawn comparisons with former Falcon and University of Iowa all-America Chuck Long, football might not be in Graham`s future. Despite basketball skills that led Wheaton North to three straight sectional tournament appearances and a trip to the 1986

supersectional, Graham might hang up his sneakers after high school. Despite baseball skills that have already drawn tryout offers from nearly half of the major league teams, Graham may never pick up a bat in earnest.

''I really don`t know how much potential I have in all three of them,''

he said. ''People keep telling me everything is going to fall into place, but so far it`s hard.''

''We`re hoping when the time comes, the decision will be obvious,'' said Victor Graham, who fields all of his son`s recruiting calls. ''So far it isn`t.''

''Kent likes what he`s doing best at the time,'' said his mother. ''He gives all three sports everything he`s got. We want him to go to school where Kent can have the best opportunities, and maybe he can be some kind of an example to other kids around him.''

But the unassuming youngest of four children in the close-knit Graham family never really dreamed of college stardom. All he ever wanted to do was play for Wheaton North High School.

He watched his older brothers Russ and Dan play football for the Falcons, including during the 1981 season when Dan Graham, currently the starting center at Northern Illinois University, quarterbacked the Falcons to the Class 4A state championship. Russ Graham is currently an assistant coach at NIU. Kent also served as a Falcon manager when National Football League draftees Jim Juriga and Long added to the Falcons` football legend.

''It was always a dream to play for coach Rex and to follow in my brothers` footsteps,'' said Kent. ''I think it`s great to play for Wheaton North. I think everybody who`s played in Tot Lot around here has gone on and gotten a scholarship. They`ve built a tradition so it`s tougher to lose, but I have faith that the coaches know what they`re doing because they`ve won in the past.''

Rexilius has never been one to toss around individual statistics. Graham, who can`t recite his own stats, has learned those lessons well.

''Personal records are okay, but it`s the team I worry about,'' Graham said. ''I just hope I can contribute the best I can. If the season goes good, I`d like to set some records at the school if I could, but the team comes before that. If we run the ball all the time, if that`s what it takes to win, that`s okay with me.''

''You know we don`t throw the ball a whole lot, but when we do we`re pretty accurate,'' said Rexilius, who considered but rejected the idea of having Graham quarterback the Falcons as a freshman. ''My main concern is that we don`t expect Kent to be Mr. Everything. We`ve seen the things he can do on the field and there`s a temptation sometimes to expect too much.''

''We`ve been trying to get him to slow down and enjoy his talents,'' said Russ Graham. ''When you`re all-conference (in basketball) as a freshman, by the time you`re a senior you`re expected to do everything. We tell him not to let it become a business. At this stage, sports is supposed to be fun.''

Graham is a B student in school and even has some skills in pottery making, acquired during a freshman class. ''I did pretty well once I got the hang of it,'' he said. ''I like doing that, but nobody`s offering me any scholarships in pottery.''

But Graham, who squeezes in time to demonstrate sports skills to Wheaton area youngsters, is not cocky. There`s no room in the Graham family for arrogance.

''If Kent got a big head, his two brothers and his father would knock it out of him,'' Romelle Graham said. ''We`ve told Kent that he`s blessed with God-given talent and to whom much is given, much is expected. Something can happen so that that athletic ability can be gone in a minute.''

''I`ve seen no jealousies develop toward Kent,'' said Hedrick. ''That comes a lot from his personality. He`s such a nice, polite kid. His likable personality really shows a lot about Kent, and I think it says something about the Wheaton community, his parents and Wheaton North.''

Politeness runs in the Graham family, but certainly no more so than does competitiveness. For more years than he can remember, Rexilius has fielded phone calls from Victor Graham. Open the nearby high school gym, and the four Graham men are up for a rough-and-tumble game of two-on-two. They`ve even been known to sneak out to the park down the street after Christmas dinner for a quick game of touch football.

''Let`s just say they play to win,'' said Rexilius.

''I used to have Kent on my side because he was the smallest and I was the biggest,'' said his father. ''Now I make him play with me because he`s the biggest and the most talented. We have a good time when we play as a family, but let`s just say we play to win, too.''

''They always let Kent tag along,'' said Becky Graham, Kent`s only sister who is a doctoral student at the University of Louisville. ''They were always good about including him when he was little, but he was pretty good, too. They`ve always been competitive, but they`ve been cooperative in teaching each other skills, too.''

''Sports has never been the center of our family, but we`ve all been involved and pretty competitive with each other,'' said Russ. ''We`ve had a good time with athletics and it`s been good to us, but sports has never been the thing that`s held us together.

''We`ve never gotten sports out of whack. That`s the one thing my parents got through to us.''

Dan Graham would like nothing better than to snap and block for his little brother with the Huskies, but he knows that`s not likely to happen.

''It would be great for him to come here, but I`m not going to put any pressure on him. There`s going to be plenty of pressure on him the way it is,'' Dan said.

That pressure will build.

''So far, he`s taken all the contacts with a grain of salt,'' said Wheaton North baseball coach Jim Humay. ''The coaches want to give him input that might clarify his thinking, but the decision has to be his.

''I think that the pressure to make a decision will hit him pretty quick. I think there will be tremendous pressure on him this year.

''Kent`s situation is very flattering in many respects, but as time goes on and the day approaches when he`ll need to make a decision, things will weigh on him. We don`t know what sport he`ll choose, we just want him to go where he`d be most happy.''

''All I want for him is to have a good senior year. He doesn`t need somebody talking to him 15 times a night,'' said Rexilius. ''But I think he`ll handle it well.''